15 Thanksgiving Craft Ideas To Keep Your Littles Entertained

With the leaves crunching underfoot, and the noticeable chill in the air, there is no doubt that autumn has arrived. Can you believe that it is already October? It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the arrival of 2019! Halloween will soon be here, and after that, everyone’s favorite food-and-football-filled holiday, Thanksgiving! It will be a veritable food haven! Before the holiday sneaks up on us, though, why not hang out with our little ones and do a craft or two? You can even adorn your countertops with the art you create, if there is room in between all the food, that is!

Everyone loves a great turkey handprint – they are practically Thanksgiving craft staples when our kids are young! But when we finish those up, and the rainbow of paint is washed off of everyone’s hands, what is the next festive craft that you can do? There is already an edible glitter turkey on the market, so tossing glitter on the food is out. But, there are actually a ton of amazing and super-fun Thanksgiving-themed crafts out there for you and your kids to enjoy together! Check out some of the exciting Thanksgiving arts and crafts projects that we have rounded up!

Shape Turkeys

Thanksgiving, Crafts
Image: Pinterest / Sandy Ellery

This craft is a wonderful one, especially for smaller children. Because while they are busy creating their turkey masterpiece, whether they know it or not, they are also learning about different shapes, like triangles, spikes, circles and more. You could even create turkey feathers out of other shapes like octagons, squares, and whatever else you can come up with! The sky is the limit when it comes to crafting! Not to mention, these turkeys are super easy to put together with just some construction paper, googly eyes and a glue-stick, you will have these adorable shape turkeys to adorn your fridge for the festive season!

Happy Thanksgiving! Coloring and Activity Book

Coloring, Thanksgiving
Image: Amazon / Jelly Jam Press

Planning on having a kid’s table at your Thanksgiving feast this year? No children’s table would be complete without some coloring books and of course crayons! What is more fun than coloring in a festive picture for us to hang on the bulletin board when they are done? This fun and entertaining children’s Thanksgiving coloring book is packed to the brim with awesome activities, pictures to color in, mazes, word searches and so much more! The kids will love coloring in their very own piece of art that matches the season! Plus, the adults will love that their children are entertained, especially without screen-time.

Wacky Turkey Cookies

Thanksgiving, Crafts
Image: Pinterest / Fun For Little Ones

Who doesn’t love a sweet treat after the feast has been enjoyed? These fun turkey cookies can easily be made by grabbing your favorite cream-filled cookies, some edible wacky eyes from your local craft store’s baking section, and some candy corn for the feathers! You can easily make these ahead of dinner time with your little ones, or you can make it an activity that the kids can do at their table after eating. You might just want to ration out the candy and cookies, though, otherwise, that tryptophan from the turkey will be counteracted by a sugar rush! These can even be made into take-home treat kits!

Dot-A-Dot Turkeys

Thanksgiving, Craft
Image: Pinterest / Jessica Patton

This is a super-easy and fun craft to do for smaller children. All that is needed is some construction paper for the turkey, glued to a piece of white cardstock, and some dot makers. Little kids will have so much fun taking the different colors of the dot markers to make the turkey’ “feathers.” Encourage them to use all kinds of colors, not just the traditional reds, oranges and browns! Rainbow turkeys all the way! When they are finished, you can put their name and the year they made it on the back of their masterpiece, so you will always have it as a keepsake! Or another great idea is to laminate it, and have the children use it as a placemat on Thanksgiving! That way, if any mess is made, with it being laminated, it can be easily wiped away!

Fall Colored Cereal Tree

Thanksgiving, Crafts
Image: Pinterest / A Dab Of Glue Will Do

Considering the Thanksgiving holiday falls right smack in the middle of the fall season, this craft will be an enjoyable and fun one to do together, especially if you’re all stuck inside on a rainy day. This one is super-simple, as it only uses construction paper for the background and the tree. For the “leaves,” fruit-flavored cereals that have reds, oranges and yellows in them are perfect. Grab a glue stick, and have your children help to pick out the correct colored cereal (this activity also helps with learning colors), and you can help to glue them onto the branches of the tree, and some at the bottom of the tree, as if the leaves have fallen.

Paper Plate Pumpkin Pie Friend

Thanksgiving, Crafts
Image: Pinterest / Diana Rosas

Who doesn’t like a delicious slice of pumpkin pie after dinner is over? With copious amounts of whipped cream in hand, we gobble the tasty treat right up! But if you are looking for something festive to do with your kids, you can always “make” this pumpkin pie and keep it as a decoration for Thanksgiving day! All you will need is a paper plate (cut into triangle slices), construction paper, some black puffy paint, googly eyes and of course a cotton ball for the finishing touch! Your littles could even make one for each of your Thanksgiving guests to take home with them as a keepsake!

DIY Turkey Napkin Rings

Thanksgiving, Crafts
Image: Pinterest / So Festive | SIMPLE Holiday & Party Ideas

This will be an especially fun craft for you and your kids to do together because these are something that are actually going to be used on the big holiday! Start saving those cardboard paper towel rolls and the kids will enjoy making turkeys out of them! They are super easy to make, too! Simply grab some fake leaves from your local dollar store for the turkey’s feathers. After that, all you need to do, is have the kids draw on some eyes, and then glue on a beak and snood (yes, that is what those red things are called, it is a real word).

Football Turkey Paper Kids Craft

Thanksgiving, Craft
Image: Pinterest / Katie – Made to be a Momma

In addition to those sweet little hand turkeys that we talked about before, nothing is better than relaxing to the big football game after the food has been devoured and the pie has been consumed. These adorable football-themed turkeys are just the thing to decorate your home with! With cute little construction paper footballs as feathers, these little critters are easy to make. Just grab some brown construction paper for the feathers, googly eyes, a glue stick, and some dark orange or brown card stock for the head and the body! Talk about a true turkey touchdown!

Turkey Popcorn Treat Bags

Thanksgiving, Craft
Image: Pinterest / Darwina Austin

Perhaps your guests might get a bit “peckish” (see what we did there?) on the ride home. Send them home with these adorable turkey treat bags! Needless to say, the kids will have an absolute blast making these with you! All you need are some food-safe gloves, popcorn, and some form of candy to use for the feathers of the turkey. Anything could work, multi-colored chocolate candies, gumdrops, fruit-flavored candies, let your imagination run wild! After you are done putting them together, seal them up, and glue on a beak and an eye, and voila! You have a turkey treat bag that you can send home with your dinner guests!

Feather Letter Turkey

Thanksgiving, Craft
Image: Pinterest / Britny Nicole

This craft can be another fun keepsake for you to keep for years to come. Plus, it is a great learning activity for smaller children, toddlers, for example. Have your child write each letter of their name on a separate “feather.” Help them to spell out their name, if they need a little help with it. After that, you can let them have at a paper plate with a brown crayon for the turkey’s body. Help them to use a glue stick to glue the feathers to the turkey, and attach some googly eyes, a beak, and feet. Now you have a sweet craft you can keep!

Turkey Finger Puppets

Thanksgiving, Crafts
Image: Pinterest / Fun Littles

How much fun will it be to create these adorable turkey finger puppets? All you have to grab is some brown and orange cardstock and faux leaves! You can find all of that at your local dollar store, so it is a great and inexpensive craft to make! Cut out one smaller circle for the turkey’s head, and a larger circle for the body. Cut out two holes that are large enough for little fingers to fit through. Add googly eyes, and boom, a puppet turkey! The kids will have a blast putting on a puppet show for all of your Thanksgiving guests to enjoy! Gobbly wobbly turkeys for the win!

Button Cornucopia

Thanksgiving, Crafts
Image: Pinterest / Dawn Pittman

We see cornucopias everywhere this time of year, a colorful sign of abundance and the harvest season. If you have an old box of buttons just sitting around, this button cornucopia will make an enjoyable craft to do. Children will enjoy picking out exactly what buttons in different sizes and colors that they want to put in their cornucopia. There is no limit to the amount of colors or buttons that they can put in their cornucopia! This would make a wonderful centerpiece, framed on the table or counter, to remind everyone of the beautiful and bountiful harvest of the season!

Sponge Painted Turkey Hats

Thanksgiving, Crafts
Image: Pinterest / Tory Huber-Lippincott

How adorable are these turkey hats? Sure, there are plenty of turkey hat crafts out there, but these are simply too sweet! Break out the little’s favorite paints and glitters (if you so wish), and let the creativity flow! If you wanted to, you could even use other crafting supplies, like pom-poms, feathers, etc. These are very easy to make, with half of a sweetly decorated paper plate, as the turkey’s feathers, and some cardstock for the headband, turkey and the turkey’s features! Imagine all the kids sporting these on the big day! What a wonderful picture that will make that everyone can enjoy for years to come!

Pumpkin Pie Thankfulness Activity

Thanksgiving, Crafts
Image: Pinterest / Rachel Parker

This is a bit similar to the other pumpkin-pie related craft that we shared earlier in this article. However, with this craft, you can also do it with kids that are a little bit older and understand what thankfulness and being grateful is. The pie “slices” are made out of painted paper plates with brown and orange paint. The “whipped topping,” if you will, are the things that the children are grateful for. They write them down on a white circle, which is then glued to the pie! This craft is a great way to teach about being thankful for what we have.

Fruit Loop Indian Corn Craft for Kids

Thanksgiving, Crafts
Image: Pinterest / The Simple Parent

It’s right smack dab in the middle of the fall season! You are definitely bound to see corn stalks adorning the doorsteps and people’s porches everywhere! Get in on the fun with this cool and very easy craft. Simply grab a piece of cardstock and some construction paper. Any fruit-flavored cereal will work here, not just Fruit Loops! Even those similar to Fruity Pebbles! Make it unique and fun and all their own! All they have to do is glue the cereal to the paper corn shape, let it dry, and you have a cute paper centerpiece for turkey day!

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